Issue Papers

The Global War on Terror: Mistaking Ideology as the Center of Gravity LTC Cheryl L Smart Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The Cold War was portrayed as an epic clash of two ideologies – Western Democracy versus Communism. Section IV of the defining cold war document, National Security Council 68 (NSC 68), was entitled “The Underlying Conflict in the Realm of Ideas and Values between the U.S. Purpose and the Kremlin Design,” and it argued that the basic conflict was between ideas – “the idea of freedom under a government of laws, and the idea of slavery under the grim oligarchy of the Kremlin.” The adversary resided in the Soviet Union and violence in other regions in the world – including terrorist violence – was exported from or used by this center of Communism. Today, the war of ideas is Western Democracy versus Salafi Islam..."

The State Department Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization and its Interaction with the Department of Defense COL John C Buss Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Over the past 15 years, the United States has been involved in seven major post-conflict reconstruction and stabilization operations. The ad hoc responses that characterized U.S. stabilization efforts in these missions have often proven inadequate. On each mission, our government has struggled to provide a responsive and enduring solution. The consequences have been the unnecessary loss of life, damage to infrastructure, and higher eventual costs for reconstruction and stabilization. Our unpreparedness to respond to the instability in post-war Iraq has met with sharp criticism. In response to these failings, the Bush administration established the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS). This paper will analyze the functions of S/CRS, examine the organization’s relationship with the military, and offer Department of Defense (DOD) policy recommendations to improve the interagency cooperation with this new organization."

U.S. Pacific Command Combating Terrorism Symposium: Addressing the Underlying Conditions of Terrorism Dr Kent H Butts, Prof Bert B Tussing Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "In sponsorship with the United States Pacific Command (USPACOM), the National Intelligence Council (NIC), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United States Army War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership (CSL) conducted a symposium-workshop entitled Addressing the Conditions that Foster Terrorism at the Collins Center, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, on June 8-10, 2005. The symposium examined the strategies, coordination efforts, and processes devoted to diminishing the underlying conditions of terrorism and demonstrated the pressing need for greater emphasis on this key element of the United States (U.S.) combating terrorism (CT) policy."

Disaster Preparedness: Anticipating the Worst Case Scenario Arthur L Bradshaw, Dr Kent H Butts, Prof Bernard F Griffard Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "South Asia, geologically speaking, is a very dynamic region. Its northern boundaries follow the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian Plates, while its southern edge is contained within the Ring of Fire. Although the major collision of continents that began the formation of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau occurred 50 million years ago, South Asia is still a seismically active area. Over the last century it has experienced eighteen earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 6.0. Approximately every 70 years the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal experiences such a seismic event. More immediately, it is estimated that 350,000 lives were lost and potentially millions left homeless in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand from the 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami that occurred off Indonesia on December 26, 2004. "

Golden Spear Task Force Meeting and Initial Planning Conference Mr Scott T Forster Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) hosted the Golden Spear Task Force Meeting and Initial Planning Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 14-17 February 2005. The Golden Spear National Delegates, designated as National Focal Point (NFP) members, were present from Kenya, Burundi, Egypt, Seychelles, Ethiopia, and Uganda while U.S. participation included USCENTCOM, United States European Command (USEUCOM), National Defense University (NDU) African Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS), and the U.S. Army War College."

Network Enabled Operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom: Initial Impressions Dennis M Murphy Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The first Gulf War was conducted with legacy systems straddling the industrial and emergent information age. The major combat operations phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), on the other hand, put into practice information age constructs and theory for the first time in warfare and was an impressive success in its speed and lethality. The impact of that network enabled campaign (often referred to as Network Centric Warfare) is the topic of a study conducted by the Center for Strategic Leadership, U.S. Army War College and commissioned by the Office of Force Transformation, U.S. Department of Defense. The study will be completed by the fall of 2005, but first drafts of the study hint at valuable operational and strategic insights."

U.S. Southern Command Environmental Security Training Workshop Dr Kent H Butts, COL Jeffrey C Reynolds, Mr Alex Sonski Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "The United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) Theater Security Cooperation Program for Central America reached a new level of success with the completion of the Environmental Security Training Workshop in Alajuela, Costa Rica. The seven-day conference graduated 30 military, police, and civilian agency professionals from seven Central American countries in a ceremony attended by regional defense and environmental ministers. This “train the trainer” workshop is the culmination of a nearly decade-long SOUTHCOM, Department of Defense (DOD), and U.S. Army War College Center for Strategic Leadership (CSL) Environmental Security Program."

Combating Terrorism and Enhancing Regional Stability and Security through Disaster Preparedness Prof Bernard F Griffard, RADM Robert T Moeller, RADM John F Sigler Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "Uninterrupted access to and use of critical infrastructure in the Arabian Gulf region are key to the successful prosecution of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). To maintain access and use the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) and its Gulf Region partners must deny outside organizations the ability to influence these requirements through terrorism. Essential to this will be information sharing and shared capabilities. Regional cooperation is important because terrorist threats vary, both regionally and nationally. To facilitate this endstate, theater security cooperation initiatives that promote regional collaboration are underway to improve national disaster preparedness capabilities and effective disaster preparedness training with partner nations.."

Responding to the Unthinkable; the Role(s) of the Military LTC Jeffery A Mcnary Issue Paper by the US Army War College, Center for Strategic Leadership "This workshop series, initiated to explore issues regarding the Army’s Reserve Components and their role in National Security as portrayed in Army wargames and exercises, focused on responding to a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, or High-yield Explosive (CBRNE) attack on the Homeland. Previous workshops framed general issues of strategic concern for the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve while also examining how well those issues had or had not been represented in key Army simulation exercises. This year’s workshop represented a narrowing of focus to cover a specific area of significant concern – the possibility of “the unthinkable” happening within the next few years, but at the same time it also widened the scope by focusing on an issue that involves the Reserve Components but is not Reserve Component centric."